Article #73
May 2010

“Memorial”

 

Classmates,

Did you know that each week that passes, 1,000 World War II veterans die -  members of the Greatest Generation, members of our family, many of our Dads.  They stood tall when the Nation called.  From Europe to the Pacific, they had experiences and life changing events that made them Hero's, but that is not what they thought of themselves...  “I was just doing my job, I was no Hero, the Hero's are the ones that never came home.”  My Dad like many of yours probably never said anything about the War. 

I know when I played Army, as a young boy, I had a complete uniform to wear.  As I got older and sometimes wandered into areas in the house I wasn’t suppose to, I found some colored ribbons with coin sized metal attached to them.  Many different ones with a rainbow of colors and different designs etched into the metal.  After the passing of my Father and Mother, I cleaned up their belongings.  I discovered many old letters, from those war years, across the oceans.  I finally got my answers to the questions I had asked decades before.  The answers prior were, a thousand yard stare and silence; something at the time I knew not to question.  But, now the letters and the medals, gave me all the answers.  My Dad was a Hero, and never said a word.  After all these years and my experiences in the military, I understand fully... silence is golden.

Along with some articles reflecting on our Hero’s and how important they are and should be to us, we will look at a USO act from the past.  Next, a look at San Francisco back in the day with some really great pictures and a movie from a cable car.  Finally, the answers to last month’s movie flashback and flip forward, classic movie lines. 

If you see a military man or women on Memorial Day or any other day, please take the time to just say Hooah and give them a hug.  They will understand;  while, the Greatest Generation fades away another Great Generation has answered the call.

 

                                                          Bob

 

 

“Thank Your Military”

 

Contributed by William Stevens & Gary Rocklage

Thank Your Military

 

 

“A Forgotten Soldier”
(An Outstanding Story)

Contributed by Bob Graham

A Forgotten Soldier

 

”Medal of Honor”

Contributed By Bruce Ahlvin

  Medal of Honor

 

 

“Virtual Wall for Vietnam Veterans”
Contributed By Bruce Ahlvin

(Click on a state, then when it opens, a name, then  it should show you a picture of the person or at least his bio and medals)

http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm

 

 



“A Soldier’s Return”

Contributed by Honor Graham

A Soldier's Return

 

 

“The Best, Welcome Home”

As selected by the Troops

The Best, Welcome Home

 

 

 

 

“The Ross Sisters, 1944”

Contributed by William Stevens & Gary Rocklage

The song they sing is about 45 seconds long (nothing special) but what they do next is one of the types of USO Entertainment many saw during WWII

The Ross Sisters, 1944

 

 

“Street Car, 1906 San Francisco”

Contributed by Bruce Ahlvin

 

WOW!! Talk about CHAOS!  If you watch the whole thing, it will give you a new appreciation of modern traffic laws!  This is well worth viewing and filmed 4 days before the '06 earthquake.

You'll appreciate the research that it took to date this film so be sure to read this first...Here's a neat opportunity to enjoy some time travel.  The film is from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco, four days before the big earthquake/fire that destroyed the area.  You can clearly see the clock tower at the end of the street at the Embarcadero wharf that's still there.  The quality & detail is great, so be sure to view it full screen.

The film, was originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn
with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot.  From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).
It was filmed only four days before the quake and shipped by train to NY for processing.  Amazing but true!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NINOxRxze9k

 

 

 

“San Francisco”
(1855 to 1970’s, 150 images - Great!)

Contributed by Gary Rocklage

http://www.sfimages.com/

 

 

Answers to Last Month's One Liners!

 

Contributed by Bob Graham

 

1.  “Snap out of it!” 
      A-Moonstruck, Cher, 1987
2.  “I feel the need - the need for speed!”
      A-Top Gun, Tom Cruise, 1986
3.  “A martini.  Shaken, not stirred.”
      A-Goldfinger, Sean Connery, 1964
4.  “Attica!  Attica!”
      A-Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino, 1975
5.  “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a Damn.”
      A-Gone With The Wind, Clark Gable, 1939
6.  “You talkin’ to me?”
      A-Taxi Driver, Robert DeNiro, 1976
7.  “They call me, Mr. Tibbs.”
      A-In The Heat of The Night, Sidney Poitier, 1967
8.  “Show me the money.”
      A-Jerry MaGuire, Cuba Gooding Jr., 1996
9.  “Love means never having to say your are sorry.”
      A-Love Story, Ali MacGraw, 1970
10.  “Rosebud.”
      A-Citizen Kane, Orson Wells, 1941
11.  “May the force be with you.”
      A-Star Wars #IV, Harrison Ford, 1977
12.  “Here’s looking at you kid.”
      A-Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart, 1942
13.  “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
      A-The Godfather, Marlon Brando, 1972
14.  “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
      A-Cool Hand Luke, Strother Martin, 1967
15.  “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
      A-Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins, 1991
16.  “There’s no place like home.”
      A-The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, 1939
17.  “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
      A-Apocalypse Now, Robert Duvall, 1979
18.  “You can’t handle the truth!”
      A-A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson, 1992
19.  “I’m walking here!  I’m walking here!”
      A-Midnight Cowboy, Dustin Hoffman, 1969
20.  “I’ll have what she is having.”
      A-When Harry Met Sally, Estelle Reiner, 1989
21.  “If you build it, they will come.”
      A-Field of Dreams, Ray Liotta, 1989
22.  “We rob banks!”
      A-Bonnie & Clyde, Warren Beatty, 1967
23.  “Houston, we have a problem.”
      A-Apollo 13, Tom Hanks, 1995
24.  “A boy’s best friend is his mom.”
      A-Psycho, Anthony Perkins, 1960
25.  “Say hello to my little friend!”
      A-Scarface, Al Pacino, 1983
26.  “...you’re trying to seduce me...aren’t you?”
      A-The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman, 1967
27.  “No wire hanger, ever!”
      A-Mommie Dearest, Faye Dunaway, 1981
28.  “Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”
      A-2001: A Space Odyssey, Keir Dullea, 1968
29.  “Toga!  Toga!”
      A-Animal House, John Belushi, 1978
30.  “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here!  This is the war room!”
      A-Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers, 1964
31.  “Badges?  We ain’t got no badges!  We don’t need no badges!  I don’t       have to show you any stinking badges!”
      A-The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Alfonso Bedoya, 1948
32.  “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.”
      A-Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze, 1987
33.  “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”
      A-Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston, 1968
34.  “I’m the King of the World!”
      A-Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio, 1997
35.  “Outta nowhere.  A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters Champion.  It looks like a mirac...It’s in the hole!  It’s in the hole!  It’s in the hole!”
      A-Caddy Shack, Bill Murray, 1980
36.  “Go ahead, make my day.”
      A-Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood, 1971
37.  “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”
      A-Jaws, Roy Scheider, 1975
38.  “Would ya just watch the hair.  Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it.  He hits my hair!”
      A-Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta, 1977
39.  “Did you ever buzz sheep Steve?”
      A-Silver Streak, Lucille Benson, 1976
40.  “No more yanky my wanky.”
      A-16 Candles, Gedde Watanable, 1989
41.  “Tell me, schwartzie, is it twue what they say about the way you people are gifted?  Oh, It’s twue, It’s twue, It’s twue!”
      A-Blazing Saddles, Madeline Kahn, 1974
42.  “Yippee-ki-yay, mother f--ker!”
      A-Die Hard, Bruce Willis, 1988
43.  “I’m mean, nasty and tired.  I eat concertina wire and piss napalm, and I can put a round in a flea’s ass at 200 meters.  So you go hump somebody else’s leg, mudface...!”
      A-Heart Break Ridge, Clint Eastwood, 1986
44.  What happened to Sully?  “I let him go!”
      A-Commando, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1985
45.  “Listen to them.  Children of the night.  What music they make.”
      A-Dracula, Bela Lugosi, 1931
46.  “I was in here yesterday, you wouldn’t wait on me...work on commission...big mistake.  Big.  Huge.  I have to go showing now.”
      A-Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts, 1990
47.  “I’m not a smart man...but I know what love is.”
      A-Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks, 1994
48.  “I’m just a sweet transvestite, from transsexual transylvania.”
      A-The Rocky Horror Show, Tim Curry, 1975
49.  “Snakes.  Why did it have to be snakes?”
      A-Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford, 1981
50.  “Did you hear that?  They shut down the main reactor.  We’ll be destroyed for sure.  This is madness.
      A-Star Wars, Anthony Daniels (C3PO), 1977
51.  “I’ll be your Huckleberry.”
      A-Tomestone, Val Kilmer, 1993
52.  “That’s right, Mr. Martini, there is an Easter Bunny.”
      A-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jack Nicholson, 1975
53.  “Look, Chalmers, let’s understand each other...I don’t like you!”
      A-Bullitt, Steve McQueen, 1968
54.  “It’s not a tumor!”
      A-Kindergarten Cop, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1990
55.  “Hey man.  All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut!”
      A-Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper, 1969

Bonus

“The  -  -  exists in every human being, we now know.  Look at that Dave.  It’s an ugly and dangerous thing...ugly because it’s a creation of man’s fear;  dangerous because...because a frightened man is dangerous.”
      A-Tingler, Vincent Price, 1959

 

 

 

Don’t Forget:
Happy Birthday and Anniversary
to all May Classmates



May Dates to Remember:

1 - Holocaust Remembrance Day


2 - German unconditional surrender to Italian allies, 1945

 

3 - Join Hands Day

 

 

4 - Construction began on the Panama Canal, 1904

 

5 - First US train robbery in Ohio, 1865

 

 

6 - Hindenburg exploded, 1937

 

7 - Israel Memorial Day


7 - Military Spouses Day

  

8 - Student Nurses Day

 

9 - Mother’s Day

 

 

10 - First Transcontinental Railway completed in Utah, 1869

 

11 - Minnesota Day

 

 
12 - International Nurses Day

 

 

13 - Frog Jumping Day

 

14 - Seinfeld final episode, 1998

 

15 - Peace Officers Memorial Day

 

15 - Armed Forces Day

  

16 - Everybody Loves Raymond final episode, 2005

 

17 - National May 17th Day

 

 [ Really? ]

18 - I Am An American Day

 

 

19 - Victoria Day in Canada

 

20 - Gilda Radner died, of ovarian cancer, 1989

21 - Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, 1927

 

 22 - 4th Saturday of the month, 2010

 

23 - South Carolina Ratification Day, 1788 - 8th state

 

 

24 - Priscilla Presley born, 1945

25 - National Missing Children Day

 

 

26 - John Wayne born, 1907

  

27 - Henry Kissinger born, 1923

 

28 - Golden Gate Bridge opened, 1937

 

 
29 - Rhode Island Ratification Day, 1790

 

29 - Wisconsin Ratification Day,  1848

 

 

30 - Senior Health and Fitness Day

 

 

31 - Memorial Day

 

 

Keep Your Fork...’64,
Bob Graham

 

 

PS:    To all Veterans, welcome home... Hooah!  “Life is like a case of “C” Rations:  you never know what you are going to get.  Because for every box of ham and lima beans, there was that rapturous moment when you would turn over the box and discover the bacchanalian joy of peaches and pound cake” or a John Wayne Bar.